If scores are correct(I followed twitter today)for game day 7 then WFN World Ranks look like this:

Australia

Papua New Guinea 57.62 28*

Ireland 54.78 37

New Zealand 50.85 32

Nauru 49.15 18

United States 47.97 34

South Africa 45.83

Samoa 41.85 18

Great Britain 41.00 42

Tonga 40.23 8

Canada 40.14 34

Denmark 39.73 40

Germany 37.37 10

Sweden 37.35 25

Israel/Palestine 35.03 10

Japan 32.67 23

China 32.09 10

India 29.94 10

Finland 29.02 13

Big movers were Peace Team falling from 11th to 15th and Tonga entering the ranks at 10th with 40.23 points. New Zealand and Ireland have swapped places as have Nauru and USA. Canada has jumped up to 11th from 14th whilst Denmark has slipped to 12th from 9th spot. India's first win in International Footy has them get off bottom spot.

Interesting that Peace Team should jump so much, seems a better reflection on them - maybe the minimum qualification number needs to be higher? US vs Nauru would be a good match that could easily go any way. Nauru beat the US in IC08 but I watched that match and it was close until Nauru got a run on late in the match. The US has improved since then but couldn't say who would win Nauru has improved too.

The Rugby World Ranking Scheme that the scheme is based on required 10 matches before a nation could become fully ranked, we decided on 8 matches because we could get more countries on the board. It is one area which does tend to throw in anomalies to our set up.

The other major problem as I metioned a little earlier is that teams that are way apart in standard (10.00 and even larger Rating Gap(as high as 16.00 points)) play against each other. That just doesn't happen in other world sports.

Now I made one mistake with the Ranks that I published earlier today and it is the above problem that stuffs the system to a degree.

Corrected Ranks

Australia

Papua New Guinea 57.63 28

Ireland 54.78 37

New Zealand 50.85 32

Nauru 49.15 18

United States 47.98

South Africa 46.00 21

Tonga 42.42 8

Samoa 41.85 18

Great Britain 40.85 42

Canada 40.14 34

Denmark 39.73 40

Germany 37.37 10

Sweden 35.17 25

Peace Team 35.04 10

Japan 32.63 23

China 32.09 10

India 29.94 10

Finland 29.02 13

Tonga have jumped in at no 8 with playing only 8 matches, have won 2, but their losing matches were all(but one) against nations that were 10.00 rating points or more higher than them, so in each of those games Tonga lost no Rating points.

I'm not criticising Tonga here, that's just how it has panned out, but it does tell us that we have to try and avoid those 10.00+ Rating Gap matches in all the competitions eg. IC's, ECh's, Oceania Champs etc. and even in tests when they occur from now on. Rating Gap greater than 10.00 matches generally confirm what we already knew, lower ranked nation gets a whipping.

Will be interesting to see how the teams ranked between 42.42 and 35.04 points move about in the last matches of the IC. Top 7 pretty well reflects relative strengths at present, should see most others slot in pretty well as well.

This is a very dissappointing result on the behalf of NZ. For the Irish to have 21 scoring shots to the Kiwi's 3, it really shows who dictated the game. This result is as dissappointing as the 2002 result! (I still feel it)I fully understand how difficult it can be to bring players from 4 different competitions in NZ and then mould them into a team, with little resources and money. The Irish and PNG teams have so much natural talent to pick from and are always hard to beat. All sides have to make difficult decisions on whether they bring older and stronger players or push for youth (as this is where most of the opportunities are), I also fully understand this.

In the next International Cup, I'd like to see it change to the AFL World Cup, with an Under 23 Amateur side entering from Australia. Who cares who wins, as I've said before, this will give all sides a benchmark to aim for and give the PNG, Irish and Kiwi's, some real competion! The International Cup, has served its purpose and been fantastic and the AFL and all the countries should be congratulated for growing this wonderful game. However, do we now have the courage to form a truly International Board (as the AFL can not always administer this comp for it to be considered seriously around the globe) or do we keep with the AFL for now? It's truly worth thinking about. If Aussie Rules Footy does go independent, we need to plan for it now! Good Luck NZ and to all the other countries on their remaining games.

That pretty much sums up my feelings re whether there should be an independent body right now. If it went independent right now, would the AFL still put in what they do now, and if not, what would the impact be, especially in South Africa and South Pacific, and to the International Cup? Not good I would suggest.

I reckon that over the last 2-3 years, that the AFL has progressively exceeded expectations on the international front (in certain key areas).

It'd be naive to expect the AFL to exceed expectations in all areas - because any budgetted process will have compromises, and the AFL has had to build it's own internal hierarchies on the fly as well.

For the foreseeable future, that the AFL is now actually planning, and aiming to strategically grow the international dimensions with now very realistic outcomes in mind - compared to even 5 years ago when it could've been regarded as 'pie in the sky' stuff, and that the public and media are slowing starting to come around.

I'd suggest on that, the AFL has to be entrusted for the short to medium term at least. That, and they have the money and the influence.